1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a bottle filling plant configured to fill blow molded bottles with a liquid beverage filling product, and a treatment machine for bottles or similar containers, with at least one transport component. At least one treatment station is formed on this transport component for the treatment of the containers on a movement path of the transport component between a container inlet and a container outlet and with functional components on the transport component and/or on a machine frame that does not move with the transport component.
2. Background Information
Background information is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily admit that subsequently mentioned information and publications are prior art.
Some treatment machines such as, for example, fillers, rinsers, closers or cappers, labeling machines, etc., employ a rotary construction, in which there are a plurality of treatment stations that can be driven in rotation around a vertical machine axis, which treatment stations are adapted to the type of processing in question and interact with the containers to be treated, for example in the form of components that hold or support the containers. Additional functional components that interact with the containers, including the functional components that guide the containers, are frequently provided on the machine frame outside the rotor and do not rotate with the rotor.
To achieve the required or desired operational reliability, including at high rates of operation (number of containers or bottles processed or treated per unit of time), a stable realization of the overall treatment machine and thereby including a stable realization of the functional components and other parts of the machine that interact with the containers is essential. When containers become jammed between the revolving rotor or the functional components located on it or between other areas of the rotor and external functional components that do not rotate with the rotor, however, the result can be damage to the treatment machine.
Problems of this type occur often to a minor extent when working with glass containers because such containers shatter relatively easily and the pieces of broken glass that are formed as a result are generally small and can therefore fall downward out of the treatment machine in question without causing any problems. On the other hand, metal or plastic containers, e.g. PET containers, cause greater problems in the event of a failure or malfunction because unlike glass containers they do not shatter, but are often dented or deformed. Such dented or deformed containers still have significant outside dimensions and can therefore frequently not fall out of the hazardous or movement area through any existing openings or spaces in the machine. Instead, they remain in the machine and can cause significant damage, for example if a container becomes jammed between a container receptacle of a treatment station of the rotor and an external container guide. As a result of the forces that occur at a high speed of rotation of the respective rotor, this can then lead not only to damage that is limited locally to the container receptacle affected, but also to extensive damage to the entire machine, for example to neighboring receptacles and to the entire container guide system.